Straight active subway tunnel exploring action
There is scant little you need to know about this undisclosed NYC Subway tunnel location: it is the original suicide spot. It is a trackless segment of tunnel that is wrong in every possible way. Next to no one seems to know for sure why it exists, not even the track workers we gingerly walked passed in the tunnel on the way to find it.
Not all subway tunnels were created equally, or more correctly, not all were built with future growth in mind.
This subway tunnel is one of those unlucky few tunnels. In its day, this tunnel was a vital subway link that even hosting LIRR trains. Today though, the areas it served are not as central or popular as they once were.
Where the tracks branch off the current subway route.
This particular stretch was practically cut in half to make way for more popular new tunnels. Today, it sits silent. One track occasionally used for layups (parking of out of service trains), the other looking intact yet dirty and disused for quite some time.
Track Filth wedged against the third rail
The Sea Honk, and other weird forms of graffiti along this stretch of track
Where the tracks end, running against a newer tunnel.
The likelihood of this tunnel ever returning to it’s former glory is pretty much zero.
So here it sits… Marginalized, but not quite forgotten.
Back when I was nothing but a little toy shitbag scrawling ugly graffiti, RIS crew was running rampant in the subways, painting every tunnel in town. Today, a lot of their stuff is faded, though JA still drops the occasional bomb. There is one spot in particular though that still has some great RIS crew stuff, and this page is a quick tip of the hat to those who Rocked This Shit back in the day, inspiring me to check out tunnels for myself.
What lays beyond this door?
History
There is a little known subway provision just north of 57th street & 7th avenue station on the present day N/Q/R lines.
North of the station, all present subway service goes down into 2 tracks leading to Queens. However, these 2 track are surrounded by 4 trackways which extend north to Central Park South, and curves slightly to the west. This tunnel was built by the BMT in the 1920s to show how the route could naturally extend into the Central Park West subway line that was only a proposal at the time. In the wake of the BMT’s bankruptcy as a result of the Malbone Street disaster, the contract to build and operate this new west side line went to the IND.
Even after the unification of the BMT, IRT and IND in 1940, no effort was ever made to connect this provision to the west side line. Instead, two of the 4 trackways were eventually connected to the 63rd street tunnel. At present, these tracks are only used by detouring R trains, or to park and turn the occasional Q or N train. For a short time, the connection to the 63rd street tunnel hosted a special S shuttle train. These tracks will eventually host the Q train when the first phase of the Second Avenue Subway opens.
Adventure
This spot just plain frustrates me.
When I first walked past it one early morning, it was not the main objective of the mission I was on, thus entering would have been a distraction. Furthermore, we had already seen plenty of homeless people abound, and this place featured a long hallway into who knows where that was full or hobo bits and scurrying rats, along with the smell of bum juice and rotting meat. Not exactly what you want to go play with at 6AM on a Sunday…
PinkSmith & Other Graff
So it took me awhile to get back to this spot. I had heard that HOU (nypd homeless outreach unit) had clear the bums out, but what I didn’t anticipate was that the MTA would gate up the entrance and clean the place up real good. I found myself kicking myself for not holding my nose, stepping over the human debris and sleeping zombie corpses, to check this place out when I had the chance.
One day I will get to see every part of this spot, but clearly, that won’t be soon…
The gated off area. Today it is filled with ventilation equipment, though you can plainly see the pillars that formed trackways curving to the west.
What is the “Sea Honk”? And how many red pills do you have to take before you finally find it, whatever it is?
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While poking around some tracks downtown, we gained access to a part of the tunnel that was partitioned off in the late 1990s in order to keep the homeless out. Within this area, we found a mysterious bit of graffiti – a chalk outline of a tombstone on a tunnel wall, labeled ” RIP WK 1959″.
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Ever look out the window of a subway while going through the tunnels and feel like you were being watched by someone or something hiding in the darkness, preying on your unsuspecting back, crouching and ready to shoot?
Chances are you were.
